Opposites  Repel
by lamaitresse
Summary: Somewhat AU, futurebased fic, mostly following Alex & Ellie. See Author's Note for more details.
1. Chapter I

**Title: **Opposites Repel  
**Author:** lamaitresse  
**Part:** 1/?  
**Fandom:** Degrassi: The Next Generation  
**Characters:** Ellie, Laura [OC  
**Pairings:** none (references to previous Jesse/Ellie)  
**Summary: **Even from 790km away, Jesse can still ruin Ellie's day.  
**Author's Note:** This is a somewhat AU, future-based fic that will feature many of the characters but focus mostly on Ellie and Alex. My inspiration for this fic comes from the 6 of Cups prompt over at Fandom Arcana on LiveJournal. It was supposed to be a oneshot but when I started, I realised I had way more ground I needed to cover. This is my first chapter fic in a long-ass time, so concrit would be greatly appreciated. It's also my first time writing for Ellie and I really hope I've done her some justice. And FYI – this fic will contain femslash down the road, you have been warned. ;)  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing associated with the Degrassi franchise  
**Rating:** T – for coarse language

* * *

**Opposites Repel  
Chapter I**

"Arrrrrrrrrrgh!" Ellie Nash slammed down her phone, catching the attention of her assistant, Laura Sutton. "Lawyers," she added testily when she saw Laura's raised eyebrow.

"That Robertson murder story still giving you grief?" she asked.

Ellie scoffed. "I wish. That was my lawyer this time."

"Ah," Laura nodded.

"Yeah," Ellie sighed. She leant back in her chair and put her feet up on the desk, letting out another frustrated growl. "This cross-border custody battle shit is, well, shit."

"I can imagine," Laura replied, although she really couldn't. The bookish woman was married to her career, despite only ever amounting to a research assistant. She hadn't had a date in years, much less been married. She stood and walked over to the coffee maker and poured them each a cup of stale, lukewarm coffee. Laura couldn't help but smirk at the Tim Horton's canister next to the machine. _A little taste of home_, her supervisor liked to call it.

Ellie took the cup gratefully, only to screw her face up in disgust after taking the first sip. "You know, in Canada, Timmy's—"

"—brews a fresh pot every twenty minutes, I know." Laura finished the sentence with an eye-roll. "What do you expect three hours after the intern's gone home, anyways?" she added, good-naturedly.

Ellie looked up at the clock. Her jaw dropped when she realised it was now 7:08 PM. On a Friday, no less. "Safe to say I've missed the rush hour traffic," she grumbled.

"What are you doing here so late anyways?" Laura asked. "It's par for the course for me, but you?"

"Put the kids on the train back to Toronto this morning, now it's time to play catch-up here." Ellie said as she began shutting down her computer. She rested her elbows on the desk, running her hands through her long red hair. "I guess their dad wasted no time wringing them for information. He knows about the pitch to the network next week."

"No way," Laura deadpanned, eyebrow raising again. Laura's eyebrow always creeped Ellie out. It reminded her of a girl she once knew.

She nodded, pursing her lips. "Courtney told him I was becoming a pitcher, bless her," Ellie coughed back a bemused laugh. "Jesse's claiming I'm putting my career over my kids. And now he's demanding full custody again." She slammed her fist down on the desk. "As if he has any sense of what it means to be a full-time parent. He missed his own son being born to go interview some has-been rocker for fuck's sake! And he has the nerve to accuse _me_ of putting my career first?"

"Ellie, go home," Laura ordered firmly but gently. "You've been here ten hours. Take the weekend off, get some rest. Trust me when I say you look like you need it. I can finish up here."

Ellie blew some stray hair from her eyes, the action causing her to suddenly regret quitting smoking. "Alright, alright," she acquiesced, tossing her blackberry into her purse and fishing for her car keys. "See you Monday, five a.m."

"And not a minute earlier!" Laura called out, watching the office door swing shut behind her boss. She shook her head, knowing full well Ellie would probably be back in the office tomorrow morning.

* * *

Ellie locked the door of her Manhattan apartment behind her and leant against it, exhaustion etched across her face. She scanned the living room, inwardly groaning at the children's toys scattered over the floor. For a moment she felt relief that her three kids were back in Toronto for the next couple weeks. It meant the apartment might actually stay tidy and maybe, just maybe, it meant she might actually show up prepared for her pitch.

Then the guilt set in. Maybe Jesse was right. Maybe she really was a terrible mother. Was it so wrong, going after the career she'd always wanted? After all, he had _his_. Not to mention it would allow her to provide every possible luxury to her children. No matter what anyone said, those three children were her number one priority, but _God_ did she hate it when Jesse caused her to question her own abilities as a mother.

She stepped over Mr. Potato Head and a few Barbies on her way to the kitchen. She reached behind the half empty boxes of pasta in the pantry and withdrew a bottle of red wine. Merlot, her favourite. She smiled, remembering her wedding reception seven years ago. She'd been five months pregnant with Steven and only permitted one glass of wine. Rather than traditional champagne she'd insisted on Merlot. In her nerves and excitement, she'd barely managed a sip before she'd spilt the wine down herself. She remembered thinking it had reminded her of her teenaged years, when she'd enjoyed looking at the stark contrast of red-on-white.

Without realising it, she'd begun to absentmindedly finger some of the rougher scars on her arms. Ellie shook her head, trying to break free of the bittersweet trip down memory lane. She carried her glass – careful not to spill it this time – into the bathroom and began to draw herself a hot bath. She stripped down and slid in, all her stresses and worries melting away temporarily.

When the water finally began to cool, Ellie hoisted herself out of the tub and toweled off, wrapping herself in her bathrobe. She wandered into the living room, sorting through the day's mail as she went. A large manila envelope caught her eye, mostly because it was addressed to _Mrs. E. Stefanovic_. Ellie glared at the envelope, wondering who the hell knew her well enough to send a letter but not well enough to know she'd changed her name back to Nash. She tossed it aside for later, too irritated to even care about the envelope's contents. As she was about to get up from the couch she noticed the message waiting light flashing on the answering machine. She smiled and pressed play, figuring it was from her kids to say they'd arrived at Jesse's safely.

"Hi, Mom, it's Steve," the message crackled. Ellie smiled when she heard her other two children, Mick and Courtney, call out "Hi, Mommy!" in the background. "We got here safe. Um, Dad says he wants to talk to you, he wants you to call him when you get this..." Ellie rolled her eyes. There was another crackle and Jesse's voice rang out, furious.

"God, Eleanor, this is _just_ like you. Why didn't you tell me you were pitching your own show? A show that means you'll be spending even _less_ time taking care of my kids? You can forget about full custody, Ellie. There's no way you're—"

Ellie angrily ripped the machine from its socket. Whatever relaxing effect her soak in the tub had had, it was now completely washed away. She sighed, mentally willing herself to ignore her ex-husband's antagonisation. She pointed the remote at the TV, tuning into some _Miss Marple_ repeat. It wasn't long before her eyelids began to droop and Ellie had drifted off to sleep. With any luck, tomorrow would be a better day.


	2. Chapter II

**Title:** Opposites Repel  
**Author:** lamaitresse  
**Part:** 2/?  
**Fandom:** Degrassi: The Next Generation  
**Characters:** Alex, Marco, Paige  
**Pairings: **none (references to previous Palex)  
**Summary:** Paige and Marco help Alex work through her losses.  
**Author's Note: **See Chapter I  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing associated with the Degrassi franchise  
**Rating:** T – for coarse language

* * *

**Opposites Repel  
Chapter II**

"Come on, hun," Paige soothed gently, rubbing Alex's back. "You need to do this."

Alex clutched her two-year-old son, rocking him back and forth, kissing his forehead, and crying. She couldn't believe this was happening. How much loss can one woman take before it finally breaks her? Six months ago, the love of her life, Chloe, had been killed in a tragic accident. Now the courts were deeming her unfit to raise their son and had placed him in the custody of Chloe's mother, Marguerite.

"I love you, Jeremy," she whispered into his curly brown locks, "Remember I always love you."

The bailiff took Jeremy from Alex's arms, causing her to burst into fresh sobs of despair. Marguerite threw her a dirty look and carried him out of the courtroom. Alex watched her son disappear behind the courtroom door and silently vowed to him that this was not over yet. After all, this was Ontario, a province known for making strides in gay rights legislation. It wouldn't be long before this bullshit ruling was overturned, Alex would see to that.

Paige slipped her hand into Alex's and gave it a tight squeeze. "Let's go. Staying here any longer is only going to make you feel worse."

Alex nodded, grateful for Paige's support throughout this whole process. It wasn't the first time Paige had been there for her during a desperate time, and she knew it wouldn't be the last. They walked arm in arm to Paige's car, reminiscent of a time when they'd once been in love. As much as they'd loved each other back then, their relationship had sizzled and fizzled with Alex's decision to leave Toronto and head out west to obtain a degree in Kinesiology from the University of Calgary.

Rather than maintain a long distance relationship, the pair had made the mutual decision to end their romance. It hadn't been an easy choice to make and there were times when they both wished they had stayed together. Alex had never once asked Paige to follow her to Calgary, and Paige had understood why. She had finally realised how selfish it had been for her to ask Alex to leave everything behind and follow her to Kingston, and the fact that Alex would never dream of putting her in the same predicament made Paige love her just that little bit more.

"You still there, hun?" Paige asked, resting her hand lightly on Alex's arm. Paige had driven them to The Dot for some lunch and they were now parked outside. Alex hadn't even realised they'd left the courthouse, much less driven anywhere.

"Huh?" she said quickly, brought out of her daze. "Oh, yeah, sorry. I'm just not with it, I guess. Did you say something?"

Paige smiled. "No, hun. Let's go get something to eat though, yeah?"

Alex pushed most of her lunch around her plate. She really didn't have much of an appetite. Instead, she spent the time listening to Paige tell her different stories in an attempt to take her mind off the day's events. She appreciated her friend's efforts even though they weren't really helping.

"So what are you doing to take care of yourself?" Paige asked her suddenly.

Alex stared across the table at her for a moment, unsure of how to answer. "Oh you know, working a lot to keep myself busy..."

Paige shook her head, not surprised at all by her friend's answer. "That's not what I mean, hun. You need to break away from the norm, surround yourself with other people."

"I really don't feel like being around other people, Paige."

"I know, Alex. But listen," Paige dug into her briefcase, brought out a file folder and pushed it towards her, "Marco really needs help planning our high school reunion. As his vice, don't think it's fitting that you help him out?"

"I don't know, Paige," Alex sighed, staring at the folder. Her mouth twitched into a slight smile, remembering another time nearly ten years ago when Paige had pushed a similar folder across a table in this same restaurant. "I'll think about it."

The smile was not lost on Paige; she knew Alex had already made up her mind.

* * *

Alex stared at the grad list for Degrassi's class of 2006. "Dude, I don't even recognise eighty per cent of these names. Michael Quinn? Tanya Reese? Eleanor Stefanovic? Are you _sure_ you have the right class list?" 

"Well, to be fair Alex, you didn't exactly spend much time at school to get to know everyone in our class," Marco chuckled, "Plus a lot of people got married and notified the Alumni Association of their name changes."

"We have an Alumni Association?" Alex joked, the first smile she'd cracked in what felt like weeks. She'd almost forgotten how much she enjoyed winding Marco up.

Marco, on the other hand, hadn't, but took it all in stride. The two finished stuffing envelopes with information packets about the upcoming reunion and began sticking address labels to them. When they were finally done with the day's project, they drove to the post office. No one on either side of the counter was impressed with the nearly 600 oversized envelopes that Alex and Marco presented for stamping and delivery.

"Good work today, Alex," Marco said gratefully as he dropped her off at home. "It was nice to see you again. And I couldn't do this without you. Kind of reminds me of old times."

"Don't go all sentimental on me, Del Rossi," Alex replied, eyes shining. "I don't think I can take it."


End file.
